Wise investment

At first glance, it seems like a lot of money when you hear of plans to build new sidewalks and add a taxi lane for the benefit of a private company at the Cedar City Airport.

It's more than what the majority of Southern Utahns earn in a year.

But when you do the math and take the longer view as the Cedar City Council did last week, it would be a bargain at twice the price.

MSC Aerospace, a company that builds specially designed fuel-efficient airplanes and that recently opened in Cedar City, needs a stretch of taxiway to get the planes it builds over to the airport so they can take off and be flown to their new owners.

Cedar City is eligible to receive a grant of $935,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce, but there's just one catch - that $130,000. That's the amount that Cedar City will need to contribute to the project to qualify for the grant.

When you consider the fact that MSC Aerospace has said it plans to add 1,000 new jobs at its plant, it becomes a pretty simple question of math that, after a little calculation, makes a whole lot of sense for Cedar City.

If you divide the $130,000 by the 1,000 new jobs, a mere $130 per job is what the city is being asked to provide in local tax money to make MSC Aerospace a more viable and profitable company and get it to the point where it can create all 1,000 of those new jobs.

One thousand jobs means 1,000 people paying income and property taxes, and it quickly becomes clear that the city will rapidly recoup the money it will spend.

Some Cedar City residents may be a bit gun-shy when it comes to handing out tax dollars that benefit just one local manufacturing company. We have seen several of these companies come and go, and the local economy has been devastated in the past by manufacturing plants picking up stakes and leaving town. But with the cost as low as it is for these improvements thanks to the federal grant, the potential return on the local investment is hard to ignore.

The Cedar City Council made the right call by approving this venture.

We certainly hope that MSC Aerospace makes good on its promises and that the partnership between the company and Cedar City's residents continues for a very long time.

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Wise investment

$130,000. At first glance, it seems like a lot of money when you hear of plans to build new sidewalks and add a taxi lane for the benefit of a private company at the Cedar City Airport.